"In the past ten years, these issues have been in the center of the world community's attention. A system of bodies dealing with these issues was finally set up after the institution in 2000 of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues," Lavrov said.
He said new approaches are arising and being put into practice, making it possible to flexibly react to appearing problems.
According to Lavrov, a committee from the UN sub-commission for the indigenous population was working out a concept of what they terms as free, preliminary and realized consent.
"Under this concept, the indigenous peoples must have full information and be able to take an active part in the decision making concerning their activity and living environment," Lavrov said.
"I believe that these ideas must form the basis of cooperation between the government and indigenous peoples," he said.
